Did I make the cutest little clothespin dollies?

Why yes.  Yes, I did!!!  I was wanting to make something sweet for the Piggy for Christmas.  I had originally intended to make the little wooden peg gnomes, because she LOVES "Gnomeo and Juliet", but as fate would have it, I couldn't find the little peg dolls anywhere in town!  I have seriously been in every Jo-Ann Fabric, Hobby Lobby and Michael's in a 20-freakin'-mile radius of my house!  (Apparently I should have ordered them online!)  But I did find the little clothespins, so I started brainstorming a bit and here is what I came up with...

First of all, supplies.  I used wooden clothespins, soy-based paint (that was a neat find!), self-adhesive craft foam, poms-poms, cross-stitch thread, ruffled ribbon, and a hot glue gun.

 I attempted mermaids first, so I turned the clothespins to where the slit was at the sides and painted the lower portion for the tail.  (Sorry for the crappy pic, lighting wasn't the best.)

Then I added a little bikini top, the face and embellished the tail.

 

And yes, I even added little belly-buttons!  Next step was to add hair and construct tail fins.  I had my mom-in-law cut the fins out of sparkly, self-adhesive craft foam.  You need two for each tail, so you can stick them together.  Once they are stuck together and your dolls are dry enough, slide that foam into the slits at the bottom of the clothespin.  We cut the hair out of cross-stitch thread and used a dot of hot glue and pressed the hair into it.  Then embellished as desired.  This is final product!

They're SWEET!  Right?  I felt so inspired and confident after I finished these little cuties that I decided to whip out some ballerinas too!  Pretty much the same deal, except the slits faced forward.  I painted little toe shoes and used ruffles and pom-poms for the tutus.  I also painted the hair and added some pom-poms for buns and/or little hats! 

OK, the one with the orange poms makes me giggle!  I LOVE them!  I do think for the next batch, I will paint the bodice in a way that leaves an unpainted area for little arms.  But hey, for a first try, these turned out pretty damn good!  I can't wait to see my little Piggy's face on Christmas morning!  I am also looking forward to making the next batch with her.  She would have SO much fun with this.  And once we figure out the gnomes, I'll be sure to post about them as well!  

Here's hoping you all have a wonderful holiday season!   Keep warm and safe and love one another!!

California Adventures--Seal Beach

You know, I almost have to laugh when I refer to my time in California as an "adventure".  Other than my aunt taking me on the long drive to Malibu to visit the Getty Villa, I spent most of my time hanging out in coffee shops playing on my iPad, farting around downtown Seal Beach, meandering through the streets taking pictures and swooning over glorious gardens and funky little cottages with million dollar price tags.  Nothing terribly adventuresome there!  But then again, this WAS the first time I have been away from my kids for more than an evening by myself.  So although I wasn't windsurfing or sky-diving, I suppose the "adventure" was  finding myself again!  I think sometimes people don't realize how hard it is to have that inner dialogue when you have kids constantly interrupting that and jamming the signal!  It was an "adventure" in peace and quiet and in not having to worry about someone else's needs.  As a stay-at-home mom, I can tell you, those moments are PRICELESS!  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE my kids big time and I certainly don't regret my decision to stay home with them, BUT it really was so incredibly nice to just have a few days to do what I wanted to do without worrying about who needs to go potty and who's hungry or tired or grumpy.

Welcome to Seal Beach, California!  It's a sweet, little town nestled in between Long Beach and Huntington Beach with a thriving downtown, a beautiful public beach and California's second longest wooden pier and the PERFECT place to laze around for 3 days!

"Slick" the mascot

The Seal Beach Administration Building (Blue skies and palm trees, gotta love it!)

Granted, most of the kitschy little cottages have been bought, torn down and replaced with McMansions, but there are few of the 50's, old-school cottages.  They are of course my favorites!

And although I adore the cottages, this particular beachside beauty caught my eye.  I'm trying to talk Big Daddy into springing for it, but I have this gut feeling the answer's gonna be no.  :(  And in case you were wondering, this IS one home!

Almost every house has a little garden and the stuff that grows there in that mild, salty air is incredible!  Some things I recognized like lantana and roses, but most of the stuff I had know idea what it was, but the streets were just full of color!

I mean really, I haven't seen a rose like this since I lived in Portland.

And the ice plant on the beach!

Downtown has lots to offer, funky little shops, lots of restaurants, and we can't forget the Red Car Museum!

I also adored Brisa's Old Town Garden.  If I could have, I would have bought the place out!  I haven't seen plants that green and gorgeous in years!

There were a couple of antique shops, and I just couldn't resist a picture of this.  I was thinking how cute that thing would be in my backyard with baskets full of petunias or geraniums!

And did I mention the pier?  The longest wooden pier in California?  Needless to say after walking to the end and back with the heavy ocean breezes, I was a bit winded!  So cool though!

And what is the beach without seagulls?

Isn't he a beauty?  This was a lucky shot though.  He flew off moments later!  

At the end of the day, I started walking home around sunset and turned for a last look at the beach for the evening and couldn't help but get a shot of the pier in the far distance with the beautiful, wind-blown palm trees and the moon rising... just stunning.  California was definitely a nice change of scenery!

I hope you have enjoyed my little photo journal of Seal Beach.  I will probably annoy you with another couple of California posts before it's all said and done, but what can I say, I love to travel, I love to take pictures and I love to share my adventures!  Does anyone know how I could get a job with the travel channel?

Westcave Preserve

On Monday, the kids and I met up with our Campfire group for a guided tour of Westcave Preserve.  I have been in Austin almost 8 years and have heard of this place, but we have never made it out there, so I was excited to finally see it.  I can tell you, I was NOT disappointed!  What a beautiful place!  The Monkey Man had asked on the way out if the preserve actually had a cave, but I told him that I was pretty sure it was just a name since the preserve is west of Bee Cave.  I was wrong!  There is actually a cave!  We were so excited!

The hike itself was lovely.  The trail was thin and rough and steep at times, we had to go single file much of the way.  This would NOT be a hike for someone with mobility issues as it is not paved and definitely not wheelchair or stroller accessible.  However, the trail was completely under the canopy and on a warm November day you just couldn't have asked for a more pleasant hike!

We started our tour with a talk about the watershed and conservation followed by a game about local wildlife.  The kids had loads of fun with this one!  I was a bobcat!

Then we had a quick picnic and gathered to start our hike.  While we were gearing up some of the kids noticed this little Texas Spiny Lizard!  Isn't it cute?

Then we were off down the trail.  First stop was a lookout point where we could see the Pedernales River.

And of course, I came across a cool, dead tree!  :)

As we got a little further into the canyon the scenery began to change from live oaks and scrub brush to delicate ferns and moss.

Then we came to the waterfall.  Granted, since there has been very little rain over the past few months the waterfall itself was nothing more than a trickle, but it was really pretty!

We were able to walk up behind the falls to look out and the kids were able to see evidence that this part of the world had once been under the sea as there were seashells in rock above our heads along with layers of limestone and shale.

Then we got to enter the cave!  OK, so we're not talking Carlsbad Caverns here, it was just a small, primitive cave that was VERY damp and drippy!  The tour guide called the water droplets that landed on our heads "cave kisses".  :)  Here is a shot of a small group of stalagmites.

Honestly, this picture makes me think of the Bog of Eternal stench in the Jim Henson movie "Labyrinth"!  Hee-hee!  There were quite a few baby stalactites, they were pretty much still "soda straws".  The tour guide mentioned that this particular cave had a lot of green algae present and if you looked close you could see algae at the end of the stalactites, which we could (sorry though, it did not translate into decent pics).  She asked if we could see what was different about the stalactites with algae and I noted that they were curved and she said, "Yes, they are curved because of the algae fighting to face toward the light at the entrance of the cave."  OK, so that was one of those mind-blowing, super-awesome discoveries!  I geeked out about that all afternoon!  There was a group of nice columns

and here is a view looking out of the cave entrance.  Notice all of the algae on the formation.

I managed one last shot of the waterfall area on the way back out.  Stunning isn't it?

It was a great hike, I highly recommend it!  This place is a preserve, so you are not allowed to just hike around willy-nilly.  They offer weekday guided tours for youth groups and few guided tours on the weekend with a maximum of 30 people per tour.  The tour guides are very motivated, friendly and knowledgeable.  They say this time of the year is pretty slow and the groups stay small.  But because of them only offering guided tours a certain number of times every week, humans have not impacted this area as much as most of the state parks.  There was no litter, just a beautiful, clean preserve with clear water and big cypress trees!  So if you haven't been, take the trip and go explore!  It is well worth the hour and fifteen minute drive out there!

Jack-O-Lanterns!

I LOVE HALLOWEEN!

Not-Back-To-School Weekend Extravaganza!

Last weekend, while everyone was getting ready for school to start, scrambling around at the outlet centers, looking for back-to-school fodder and taking advantage of the tax free weekend, WE were in San Antonio celebrating our "Not-Back-To-School Weekend Extravaganza"! We dropped the doggies off with friends then hit the road! We got to San Antonio just in time for lunch and happened across this awesome little "mom & pop" shop.
Chicago dogs and Philly cheesesteaks to DIE for! And yes, that's the Philly, with mushrooms, onions and chopped cherry peppers. OH HELL YEAH! So if you are ever in town, and have a hankerin' for a good dog or cheesesteak and you want to support a great local biz owned by a nice woman and her son, then head over to R&B's located on Austin Hwy in the Alamo Heights neighborhood. It will be worth your time!

After we completely stuffed our faces (cuz we seriously ordered WAY more than we should have) we headed down the road to the Witte Museum to check out the Dinosaur George exhibit. What fun! Life-size, animatronic dinos! Obviously the T-Rex was cool, but it was the sponsor sign that really cracked me up! The other part that intrigued me was the model of the "adolescent" T-Rex. They are now thinking that young T. Rex's were covered in a fine layer of down until they reached maturity and shed! How freaky is that? It's like baby T. Rex's were almost cute and cuddly like baby ducklings! Awwww! Can we get one for Easter?
The kids excavating a velociraptor in the "dig site"!
The beautiful view from behind the Witte.
The Monkey Man wanted to try out the "SkyCycle" which is a bike that coasts along a wire that is counter-weighted to keep the rider from falling. He felt like a daredevil!
Obligatory tree pic! You know how I feel about cool, old trees!
The kids checking out their surroundings!
Once we had our fill of the Witte, it was time to make our way to the Riverwalk and check into our hotel. This particular Drury used to be an old bank. The reservation desk is at the teller windows, the old mail and deposit boxes are still in place, the lobby is quite grand with gold crown moulding, marble floors and walls and giant chandeliers! The elevators were so cool! The hallway to our room looked like and even smelled like an old bank building! All of the doors had what seemed to be frosted glass windows like an old bank would have had, but when we entered the room we saw they were solid wood, just the illusion of frosted glass on the exterior! The rooms were very nice and the bathroom was gorgeous! AND when we checked in we asked if we could get a room as high as possible, so they set us up on the 19th floor with a Riverwalk view! The kids were thrilled to look out the windows and see this... After we got everything settled, we suited up and headed to the rooftop pool, yet another BIG deal for the kiddos. "MOM! A POOL! ON THE ROOF!!!!!"

Cowabunga!

Another Drury perk is the 5:30 Kickback and Happy Hour! Snacks, hell damn near a meal, sodas and popcorn for the kids, and 3 free drinks for the growed-ups! I had a particularly happy hour!
Then it was time to hit the Riverwalk. Big Daddy duck followed by his little ducklings! We treated to the kiddos to the Rainforest Cafe. Personally I hate that place, it's way over-priced and the food is nothing to write home about, BUT the kids LOVE it. AND they have cute t-shirts. After paying way too much $$$ for mediocre food, we continued on our tour of the Riverwalk as the sun was setting. We were almost back to the hotel when Big Daddy heard live music and we followed his ears to a wonderful little open air plaza behind the hotel. There was a jazzy/bluesy band playing old standards and the night was beautiful! I left the kids with Big Daddy and took off with my camera to explore! I came across the San Fernando Cathedral, all lit up and gorgeous!
Then I couldn't help but snap a quick one of the Tower Life Building next to an almost full moon! SWEET.
The kids started to poop out, so we headed back to the hotel to raid the vending machines and call it a night. We had to be up bright and early to make it to Schlitterbahn in time to get a good table in the shade! The rest of our day was spent splashing in the water, hurling down slides and playing with wild and reckless abandon! At least until we were all sunburned and completely exhausted!

And this my friends, is how we spent the weekend before school started! Have I mentioned lately how much I LOVE homeschooling?!?